The Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Italian Drawings - January 23, 2008On January 23, 2008, Sotheby’s New York will present for sale The Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection of Italian Drawings, one of the preeminent collections of its type in private hands.

News-Antique.com - Dec 20,2007 - AUCTION WILL FEATURE IMPORTANT WORKS BY TIEPOLO, PARMIGIANINO, BAROCCI, ROMANO AND GUERCINO, AMONG OTHERS

On January 23, 2008, Sotheby’s New York will present for sale The Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection of Italian Drawings, one of the preeminent collections of its type in private hands, and arguably the finest to appear on the market in nearly 20 years. Comprising more than 100 works, the extremely high quality of the drawings, combined with their extraordinary breadth and depth, presents all aspects of the art of drawing in Italy from the early 16th century to the early 19th century. Representing a wide range of techniques, from the earliest rapid sketches, to highly finished, elaborate presentation drawings, the collection features outstanding examples of the work of the artists in question. Among the highlights are rare and exceptional works by Giulio Romano, Federico Barocci, Parmigianino, Annibale Carracci,
Guercino, and an outstanding group of 11 works by Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo. The offering, which was acquired over a period of several decades, is estimated to bring more than $5 million.

Gregory Rubinstein, Director of Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings Department said, “In recent times, a shortage of really good material has been a defining feature of the Old Master Drawings market, which is why this sale of Mr. Horvitz’s collection will be so significant. This is the most important collection of Italian drawings to come to the market in a generation, and for many collectors, this will be the first time they have had an opportunity to study so many outstanding Italian drawings outside of a museum context, or to consider such a wide range of acquisition possibilities. The offering of this collection has the potential to attract a whole new generation of collectors to this fascinating field for the first time.”

Jeffrey Horvitz began collecting Old Master Drawings in 1983. At that time he was a prominent dealer in Contemporary Art – a field he sees as sharing intrinsic similarities with that of Old Master drawings. He recalls: “I was a dealer in 20th-century art in Los Angeles the 1970s, and my experience was that almost all of the dealers of 20thcentury art that I knew had drawings in their collections. I think it has something to do with the immediacy of the objects.”

From the outset, Mr. Horvitz quickly established himself as one of the most vigorous collectors active in the market. Relentless in his pursuit of French and Italian drawings – all of which had to fit his own strict set of criteria – he has, over the last 25 years, put together two parallel collections, each of which is unrivalled in terms of both quality and quantity. In more recent years, however, the bulk of Mr. Horvitz’s energies have been directed towards finessing the French collection and now, recognizing the near-impossibility of building two world-class collections at the same time, he has decided to divest himself of the smaller group: “Now the French outnumber the Italian drawings by a factor of ten. Nonetheless,